My first experiment with NodeJS was on August 2012: I wrote a prototype of a multiplayer game with Socket.io and I was amazed by its power and simplicity. Also, npm was a step forward at that time in the world of package management. Nowadays I still appreciate this concept: using one language for backend and frontend. Few years later there was a quantum leap in the JavaScript ecosystem, the language evolved and the transition was handled in the best way (IMO). In general, I consider JavaScript the lingua franca of IT: if I write an algorithm in JavaScript almost any developer can read it and translate it in any other language.

Probably Golang is not the definitive language, but, for me is perfect. First of all, a compiled language was missing in my reportoire. Deploying or distribute a single executable is a big win. I also like the simplicity of the language: yes, only 25 keywords actually attract me. I really like the fact that it handles concurrency and it is multicore out of the box: it relaxes me, I can focus only on the algorithm... but I confess that, as a mathematician, I felt in love with Golang cause it has builtin complex number data type. Wow!

When I started working in IT in 2005 my boss said: you need to learn Perl. Big respect for the camel, I learned a lot from this language and its community. It is still my preferred language for string manipulation and parsing.